The Stitch Witch
by Konneh
Summary: Everyone knows there's a stitch witch on the other side of the forest, and she can stitch together anything you asked. Your clothes, your thoughts, your heart. And all you need is a penny.


Everyone knew there was a stitch witch on the other side of the forest. Just there where the two mountains met. If you watched carefully, especially in the chill of autumn evenings, you could see the odd puff of colored smoke from time to time, snaking into mystical shapes before vanishing into the twilight. It made the whole town uneasy to know there was a spell-caster so close, but, as she never came in to town, the people lived a rather peaceful and content life despite this.

Now, like with all witches, everyone knew to take care to steer clear. You took the long way around the ranges rather than risk disturbing a woman of power. But yet still there were rumors, many rumors, of the great services she could do. She was a stitch witch, after all, and as such she could mend anything. Whatever you asked she could stitch together, from your finest clothes to ghastly wounds. They said she could stitch a soul straight back into its body if you caught it fast enough. And all you needed was a penny.

Adrien, like all the town's children, had grown up listening to these tales. It seemed to him that the stitch witch had been there since the very beginning of time. Certainly she had resided in the mysterious forest for far longer than anyone in his humble village could remember. This, of course, did not help with the nervous chatter that surrounded her rumors. Surely no one could keep themselves alive this long without practicing very dark magic indeed.  
Adrien thought this must be true as well, for every time they thought maybe she had gone at last, a new story of a traveler seeking her help surfaced again, or they would see the colored plumes of her magic sparkling in the distance. The magic would illuminate the horizon evening after evening, sometimes for a month or more, before things would quiet down and the town would relax again.

Still, Adrien reasoned to himself as he adjusted the items in his bag so that he could fit in just a few more supplies, she couldn't be all bad. Though there was always some dreadful tale of some curse maiming a poor soul who dared cross her, Adrien had noticed that he had yet to ever see any evidence of it. The people who did make these claims always looked healthy enough to him, and they never stayed long in town.

He liked to amuse himself by pretending maybe these were jilted lovers. Men who had sought to tame such a powerful woman and were bitter in their rejection. Wouldn't that just be the way?

He nodded to himself as he re-adjusted his bag over his shoulder. That was it then. He would use that sort of story to bolster his own courage. He couldn't risk losing his nerve and turning back. After all, he didn't exactly have many other options, did he? He'd have to go. She was the only one he knew who could solve his problem.

The early morning sun had just barely risen over the trees as Adrien set off through the market. He took a deep breath as he headed though town to the forest, enjoying the small shiver of the night's chill that clung to the air. He wanted to be well into the forest before the town was too busy and someone noticed him going, but the fact that he loved early morning walks would hopefully stave off any suspicion from the early risen shop-keepers who saw him on his way.

Adrien trudged on, determinedly avoiding eye contact with the sleepy towns people who were setting up their daily wares. He was so blindly determined in his path that he only just missed hitting a small, rather dirty girl in a rather patched and frayed dress who had stumbled out into his path. Apparently she had been equally distracted that morning as Adrien's sudden presence was enough to startle her so bad she nearly fell over. Indeed she might have done just that, except that Adrien was able to catch her to keep her upright. He couldn't save the spools and bobbins of thread, however, and they scattered in several different directions at once as they fell from her hands. Nor could he stop her from stepping on the bottom of her slightly over-long dress. A ripping sound signaled that somewhere another gash had formed in the cloth that, in a time long past, looked like it might have once been very fine.

"Oh! Oh no!" she squeaked, immediately kneeling down to try to gather up the wayward spools as quickly as she could.

"Let me help you!" Adrien said urgently as he got to his hands and knees to gather the thread with her, feeling slightly responsible for her dropping them to begin with.

Soon, between the two of them, they had gathered up every bit of the colorful thread and she thanked him, her face rather red under all the dirt. She turned quickly to scurry away, the top spools of thread wobbling dangerously in her hands as she did so. Suddenly an idea came to him and he called out to her. She listened, stopping nervously and turning back to him, looking curious but wary.

"Hold on just a moment!" he said as he slid his bag off his shoulder while she watched curiously. He rummaged through his bag until he found a small spare sack he had brought just in case. He offered it to her with a charming smile and noticed she seemed to get even more flushed than she had before.

"Oh, n-no I couldn't!" she stammered bashfully, avoiding looking up at him.

"I insist," he said, smiling yet wider. Without waiting for her to accept, he started grabbing spools from the top of the pile in her arms and stuffed them into the small sack. Once they were all inside,though they just barely fit, he cinched the top and offered it to her. She hesitated for a small moment, then accepted it with a small, trembling hand.

"Thank you so much," she said, clutching the bag to her chest with both hands. "I promise I'll return it as soon as I can."

"Don't worry about that. My father is the local cloth merchant so we have more than enough fabric to spare if I need another made."

She glanced up at him at last, revealing startlingly blue eyes, and she flashed him a smile. "Even so. I'll pay you back somehow. "

This time he was the one who turned slightly red.

But before he could gather his thoughts to respond, she had flitted off. He watched her go, puzzling about where he had seen her before. It wasn't an overly large town, and he had been sure he knew everyone at least by sight. Everyone needed to buy cloth from time to time after all. But, while she seemed vaguely familiar, he couldn't quite place her. One would think he'd be able to properly remember a girl with hair that dark and eyes that bright.

Still, he had other things to be getting on with just then. With a small shrug and a little sigh, he shouldered his pack again and continued on his trek into the dense forest.

He'd have to wait to spare more thoughts for mysterious girls in tattered dresses some other time.


End file.
